Momma’s Never Fail Fruitcake, by Beverly Hicks Burch

This is the season for the dreaded fruitcake. Most of conjure up images of Aunt Maude’s stale, hard-as-a-brick monstrosity with bits of bitter citron or we might have images of a fruitcake swimming in an alcohol haze so heady the flies would get a buzz just flying over it.

Ok…purge those images out of your head because do I have a fruitcake recipe for you! My little Momma knew how her family felt about fruitcake…we’d met a lot we didn’t like and somehow, somewhere years ago she came upon this recipe. Over the years it’s become a family favorite for fruitcake…there’s just none other in our eyes. We don’t see it every year, but when we do it’s a real treat.

Momma’s Never Fail Fruitcake

1 pound candied cherries, chopped

1 pound candied pineapple, chopped

1 pound pitted dates, chopped

1 pound pecans, chopped

15 ounces coconut (2 cans)

3 tablespoons flour

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

Mix fruit and nuts in a large mixing bowl. Add coconut and mix well (you can use your hands).

Add flour and mix; next add sweetened condensed milk and mix well.

Pack lightly into a 10 inch tube pan that has been waxed and lined with waxed paper.

Decorate the top of the cake with candied cherry halves and candied pineapples.

Bake 1 ½ hours at 300°. (You might have to bake this longer for it to set. I baked mine an additional 45 minutes.)

Remove from oven and run a knife around the edges of the pan and the cake. When barley warm remove from the pan.